develop weapons of war with the hopes
that they never will be used in battle. The
US has developed a long series of cruise
missiles and the Regulus is an example of
one of the first operational nuclear
tipped cruise missiles that began development back in 1947 for the Navy. Figure 6
shows a Regulus prepping for launch
from the deck of the U.S.S. Toledo, a
Navy cruiser. The almost seven ton, turbofan jet powered Regulus could deliver
a 1-2 megaton W27 thermonuclear
warhead up to a range of 500 nautical
miles from a submarine or surface ship.

Unlike today’s submarine launched
Trident ballistic missiles that can be
launched while the sub is submerged,
the Regulus was launched from the deck
of the vessels. A later version — the
Regulus II — was developed and tested
that could hit a target 1,200 nautical
miles away at a speed of Mach 2, but the
Polaris program of submerged-launched
ballistic missiles superseded further
development. The Regulus had a major
shortcoming for an unmanned missile; it
required radio control guidance to its
target. The missile inertial guidance and
terrain-following technology was not yet
fully developed in the mid ‘50s.

containing the missile, the 550 pound
solid state booster, and a capsule for
subs or a canister for ships that serves
as the launch tube. Full production was
initiated in 1981 (Figure 8).

What makes these things intelligent? The first Block II Tomahawk used
terrain contour matching (TERCOM), a
radar altimeter, and a digital scene
matching correlation (DSMAC) computer
terminal guidance system. The missile
required previous extensive knowledge of
the terrain of the enemy’s target areas,
not always possible in time of war. The
second generation or Block III systems
added GPS and inertial navigation to supplement the terrain and scene computer
navigation systems, much the same as
the DARPA Grand Challenge vehicles that
recently navigated the simulated urban
environment. Block IV and V variations
have vastly improved the system. The
new Tomahawk Baseline Improvement
Program (TBIP) provides UHF SATCOM
and a ‘man-in-the-loop’ data link to
enable the missile to receive in-flight
targeting updates, to transfer health and
status messages, and to broadcast battle
damage reports back to base.

FIGURE 5. A Hand Launched UAV.

The Tomahawk
Cruise Missile

The RQ-1 Predator UAV

The BGM-109 (Boosted Guided
Missile) Tomahawk Land Attack Missile
(TLAM) is one of the few battle-tested
long-range missiles, having seen extensive use in the first Gulf War and more
recently in Afghanistan when US warships launched over 60 of them in the
hunt for Osama bin Laden (Figure 7).

Iraq has also seen its share of
these intelligent robot planes sail down
the streets of cities and make several
quick turns into their targets. They can
be nuclear tipped with a 200 kiloton
warhead, but all of the Tomahawks
fired in war have carried 1,000 pounds
of high explosives (TLAM-C) or submu-nitions called bomblets (TLAM-D). They
all have a range of 1,400 miles.

Powered by a Williams International
600 pound thrust turbo fan jet engine,
the subsonic (550 mph) missile weighs
2,650 pounds and is 18’ 3” long. The
weapons are delivered to the various
ships and subs as an ‘all-up-round’

It was early one Tuesday morning
in April 2006 when a teleoperated
robot plane was scanning the ground
at the Mexican border in southern
Arizona. Suddenly, the plane’s engine
quit and it made a crash dive into a hillside near some homes. This Customs
and Border Patrol UAV Predator B had
accidentally had its fuel supply cut off
by an erroneous command from the
remote control console (see Figure 9).

The biggest loss was not the crash
or the loss of a multi-million dollar plane,

but the loss of confidence that the US
government and society might have in
unmanned planes sailing our skies. An
investigative panel revealed that the
operator said that the control console
“froze up and he didn’t realize
that it was set to shut off the
UAV’s fuel supply.” Figure 10
shows the Pilot and Payload
control console for the Predator;
only a part of the typical 30 foot
long control trailer that also contains two synthetic aperture radar

consoles, a mission planning console,
and several satellite ground stations.

I’m highlighting the Predator over
the thousands of other varieties as it is
one of the most visible UAVs, with its distinctive bulbous nose and inverted “V”
tail. The Predator contract was awarded
to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems
in January 1994 by the US Air Force. The
Predator system first flew in that year
and entered production in August 1997.
Over 125 Predators have been delivered
to the USAF. The Predators have been
operational in Bosnia since 1995 for
NATO and US operations. In 2002, a
Predator UAV actually released a Hellfire
missile in Yemen that destroyed a civilian
vehicle carrying suspected terrorists.

Thousands of UAVs fly above war
zones in Iraq and Afghanistan,
accumulating well over 300,000 flight
hours. Powered by a 101 HP Rotax
engine (similar to a snowmobile
engine), the Predator is 27 feet long